Theory and Practice and Slow Feet

You know the line "what's the difference between theory and practice? In theory there's no difference." But in practice...

I did another lesson flight with Ed in the Citabria late this afternoon at Sterling (3B3). The plan was to briefly review stalls and then practice takeoffs and landing somewhere. Normally this would be Sterling, but it was such a gorgeous flying day, there was a lot of glider activity and other traffic at Sterling, so we thought we might head over to Worcester (ORH) for pattern work. We did a few stalls at 3000 feet, and I did better on procedures, keeping the wings level with the rudder, and executing better and more prompt recovery than last time. So we listened to ORH's ATIS on the radio and learned that the runway in use would have a strong crosswind. It was close to 5 pm so we figured maybe the Sterling glider folks would be packing up soon.

So I headed back to Sterling - or so I thought. We had flown further west and north than I thought and with the clearing turns and stalls, I got a bit disoriented. We were near Mount Wachusett and I spotted a divided highway I thought was the I-190. In fact it must have been Route 2 up by Fitchburg! So I was flying away from Sterling! Ed turned it into a GPS mini-lesson. The aircraft has a combined COM/NAV/GPS installed, not very fancy but functional. Ed told my how to enter "direct to 3B3" and I did a 180 and followed the GPS back to 3B3.This will be useful if (I mean when) I start flying solo.

Sterling also had a crosswind on 34 but not as bad. It also had a lot of traffic we had to watch for, including a glider turning to final and some other inbound gliders and powered aircraft. I entered the pattern and extended the downwind to allow the glider to land and get clear. My airspeed control and turns were so-so and I was fast and low on final. Ed reminded me that I could trade airspeed for some altitude. He helped quite a bit on the landing since I wasn't quite ready for the crosswind. We taxied back and took off again.

Takeoffs should be fairly easy, but my feet are still slow, and I don't apply rudder fast enough to keep it rolling straight. This is harder in a tail wheel airplane than in a tricycle gear (Cessna 152, etc.) plane, but I did some work with Ed in his Cub in 2004, and I should know the drill. I also spent a lot of time this week reviewing the takeoff and landing sections of The Compleat Taildragger Pilot so all the pointers about the dynamic rolling behavior are the airplane were fresh in my mind (that's the theory part).  Ed was able to save us from my swerves and keep us from ground looping ("heading for the weeds" as they say). Although I was trying to be fast, I wasn't "jabbing" at the right times (causing instead of fixing problems). And I was still slow to recognize deviations and correct them. You've only got the width of the landing gear to play with - if you swerve out of that roughly 6-7 foot zone, it's very difficult to recover. These things are VERY touchy, and I really had a lot of trouble with the Cub in 2004. At least with the Citabria, I'm flying from the front seat and I can see very well over the nose even with the tail down in the nose-high stall attitude. We did another takeoff and landing and I wasn't much better.

Oh well. I knew this would take a while. But I'll get there. I've got another flight early tomorrow morning before work. The air will be calmer and we'll probably have the runway to ourselves. I'll focus on teaching my feet the tail wheel dance - trying to keep in time to the music, I mean the airplane.

Citabria 1.1 hours dual at 3B3.

Takeoff, Slow Flight, Stalls, Landing

This was the second flight with Ed in the Citabria, and I handled pretty much the entire flight, though with a lot of verbal coaching from Ed. After the pre-flight inspection, I taxied out to runway 34 at Sterling and made the radio call to Sterling traffic. On the takeoff roll, my feet were a bit slow and I didn't use enough right rudder, so we had a bit of swerving (Ed may have kicked in some corrections there). You have to use large, jabbing inputs at the start of the takeoff roll, then smaller inputs when the tail comes up and the rudder starts to be responsive. I was also a bit dense on holding a steady climb speed of 75 mph and staying on the runway heading for departure. We headed west and climbed to 3000 feet (about 2500 feet AGL).

The main goals for this flight were slow flight (just a few mph above a stall) and stalls (power on, power off, and while turning). This is all aimed at getting a feel for controlling the aircraft when it's near the stall, as well as to practice prompt and correct recovery when it does stall. In terms of reacting to events and following procedures, I was a bit slow and relied too much on Ed's prompting. Next time we will do some more stalls and I will be sure to know the recovery steps cold (and to remember carb heat on/off at the appropriate times). Overall my rudder control of the airplane in slow flight and stalls was pretty good. I've always felt pretty safe and comfortable with practicing stalls, and since this airplane is certified for intentional spins, I'm looking forward to practicing those too (probably not for a few more flights - I want to first get a lot more proficient with controlling the aircraft). I was still tending to gain or lose altitude on some of my clearing turns, and I seemed to have trouble getting to and holding the target altitude from a climb or descent. Not very good with trim yet - lots of trial and error on that.

Then we headed back to Sterling. With all the clearing turns, stalls, and altitude recovery, we ended up SW of the town of Rutland, about 12 miles WSW of the airport. It was hazier than Saturday, and while I knew the general area of the airport (between Mount Wachusett and Wachusett Reservoir, with three ponds pointing to it from the Reservoir end, see graphic), I was not sure which small gap in the trees it was until we were a couple of miles out (I have to remember to also look for the I-190 expressway which runs NE and practically touches the 34 approach end of the runway). I made the 45 degree entry to the left-downwind for runway 34, and made the radio call for this. I made one more call to traffic (on downwind) then got too busy thinking about the approach and landing. Ed talked me through these, but I flew the approach and landing myself (first time landing on a grass runway). It was not terrible, but I was again slow with my feet on the landing roll. You need to really jab the rudder pedals, quick impulses, to keep the plane from swerving once you are rolling on the grass.

I taxied back to 34 and we did one more takeoff, staying in the pattern. This time I got slow on departure for some reason and Ed had to point this out (not a good place to practice departure stalls, on an actual departure). My pattern was a bit wide, and I missed making most of the radio calls, but my airspeed control was better, and lineup was pretty good (grass runway is a pretty wide target!). This time I flared a bit high, but it was OK, and I started jabbing the rudder pedals and kept the landing roll much straighter. Then I taxied back to the tie-down spot, avoiding the gliders which were being pulled out for their afternoon flights.

I made some mistakes and didn't divide my attention among important tasks as well as I should have, but overall it felt like real progress toward controlling the airplane and knowing what was going on (usually). It will take a lot more work, but I think I can do this.


Citabria 1.2 hours dual at 3B3.

First Official Lesson (Hopedale)

This was also a good flight, and my first official (non-demo) lesson with Jason. Jason is not exactly Mr. Congeniality – he seemed a bit irritable at first, but I guess he's never one to be too chatty. It's a job, right? In flight is where it counts, of course, and he's very patient and appropriately educational. Today we again focused on the four fundamentals, and I think my over-controlling was a little better (different airplane too, C172 – I wanted to try the C150 but it was out later than expected, and I didn't want to wait again – it's a critical path when they only have one of the aircraft you are learning in, but it's a small, convenient flight school, so c'est la vie – C172 seemed HUGE after flying the 152). I have a couple of new problems (well, let's say more obvious): instrument fixation, and getting flustered on new stuff.

· Preflight seemed to take me a long time – Jason watched and helped when asked, but it was my job to run the checklist (I need to write out and memorize the pre-flight checklists so I can go more smoothly through them). Taxi was still awkward, but less so than before (need smaller inputs on the rudders). Weather looked suspicious but was fine except for a very dramatic looking rainstorm over Worcester (visibility must have been 15+ miles)

· Takeoff was runway 18, to the south, with a right turn (west) departure. I did OK on takeoff except I rotated a bit late (I need to write down and memorize the V-speeds for the C172 and C152, or better yet, get the POH for both). I wish all the planes had either knots or mph and not un peu de tout.

· Problem one: instrument fixation. After a couple of turns, Jason zapped this by plastering black rubber suction-cup disks over all but the tach! No airspeed, attitude, altimeter, or turn and slip! This forces you to look outside the airplane for your flight cues, which is a great idea. I think sims have made me an instrument junky (but everybody probably does this to some degree).

· Steep turns, 45 degree bank, 360 degree turns -- cool

· Stalls - procedure - got flustered, problem two ("don't go bonkers on me now") – stalled once in a turn – Jason thought I was nervous on the stalls (I don't think so, but maybe my switch from light touch to death grip on the yoke says more than I know!). I have to start memorizing some stuff – procedures, RPM's, V-speeds, etc.

· Fluster example: letting nose go down a lot in a turn after stall recovery, then adding lots of power and yanking back on the yoke – nice G-force, but bad form!

· MCA – mushing along indeed – swing the yoke all over for nil effect – cool.

· Altitude control in turns, often good, but inconsistent (inconsistency is probably my problem 3, but it takes practice – I'm only a 3 hour student pilot – Jason even gained 100' in his "blind" 360 degree demonstration turn)

· Fly back home (no joy on 1B6! see satellite pic above, needle in a haystack!) – 120 mph on downwind seemed fast, but Jason said no – 65 mph landing speed (seems fast in a Taurus but slow in an airplane you are riding onto the ground – maybe this is why I like knots, a different unit for the airplane)

· Landing – Jason's plane, but really following through on controls, and talking it down – "Flare-flare-flare-flare-flare-flare-flare-flare-flare!"

· The bottom line: $92.25 (I didn't get a receipt, oddly enough – paid cash)

· Next: more turns, MCA, stalls, starting pattern work, rectangular course (ground reference) – scheduled for September 4 before Germany trip.

Time: Dual 1.0 hrs, TT 3.1 hrs (C172 at 1B6)

Thumbs Up (Intro Flight at EMT)

As Hades says in Disney's Hercules, "Two thumbs WAY, way up!" This was a great flight (it was with Valley Flight Center, 818/444-7739). I even did maybe 80% of the landing! The CFI was supposed to be "Brian," and maybe that's his nickname, but he's actually Sergio Guevara, Jr., and he has 1700+ hours, CFI/CFII, working on multi-engine with hopes for ATP and airline flying. Nice guy, and very instructional (kept quizzing me on various stuff on the preflight checks, e.g., FAA no longer requires that a radio license be in the aircraft with the air worthiness and registration, but the POH must still be there – I didn't know some things like "dorsal fin," the forward extension of the vertical stabilizer – gotta study harder I guess).

ANYWAY, we did a real thorough pre-flight (but no paper checklist for the outside walkaround – I would have to buy a handbook for that, and he knew it, as did I from this morning – we could have used the POH itself, but I would have gotten oil and gas on it like this morning at CCB). He even put water in a fuel sample to show me what that looks like (sinks to bottom, color is different, beads up on ground). We had to tighten screw on the right wing. Switch to bullets (as opposed to AMRAAMs?):

· I really like that little C152, and I may try to switch to C150 back home and save some money.

· I made the radio calls and did pretty well thanks to some recent practice with sound files I got from the web (ATIS and other radio samples in VOX format). Got ATIS, requested taxi clearance and takeoff, and even called the tower when we were at the West Covina Mall heading west for landing.

· I did the takeoff myself (wind was 190° at 14 kts, essentially straight down the runway, no crosswind), swerving a bit on the rudders, but not too bad (I made sure the door was securely latched this time!). Got fast on climbout (80 kts -- you want to gain altitude fast over the I-10 and other dense ground features, so cruise climb has to wait – 65 kts for best rate I believe – if I knew which plane I was flying back home now, I would have bought a handbook and checklists, because both Valley and F.A.S.T. down the street had these for C150, 152, 172, etc.).

· We had asked for a left downwind (north) departure to the Santa Fe Dam practice area, just a few minutes away. I tried to scan for traffic and I did not particularly notice any ground features other than the I-10 and I-605 freeways.

· We started with climbing to 3500' and then did some turns at various bank angles – as usual, I was overcorrecting. One problem I have is overcontrolling for the overbanking tendency in steep turns (30 and 45° today) – it only requires a slight touch of opposite aileron, and if you add too much, it shallows out the bank. I did this a lot but improved a little, and I did one really nice 45 degree bank (feels steeper than that – you can feel the 1.4G's)

· Speaking of G's, I couple of times I pulled a few more (maybe 2?) when I started to let the nose go down too much then added power and pulled up too abruptly. CFI didn't say anything. My altitude control in turns was so-so.

· There was one close airplane that I spotted at my 9 o'clock, turning away (west) from us on the way to the practice area. I think he was maybe 2000 feet away and only 300 feet below us when I saw him – some sort of Piper. I spotted and called clock positions on other traffic a few times, 5+ miles away, except for an escaped helium balloon that passed us at 2500 feet near the mall!

· We did both power-off and power-on stalls, with flaps (landing and takeoff configs) – cool, though I didn't really feel the pre-stall buffet (I heard the horn loud & clear though). The nose seems WAY, way high, but I know it's not. I lost over 200' on the second stall.

· After the stalls when I was straight and level again (at 3000 feet I think), he cut the throttle to idle and said "What if you lose your engine right now, what do you do?" I said, OK, establish best glide speed (he said good, 60 kts, do it), then I proceeded to put the nose DOWN and speed up to 90+ knots! DUH! So then I'm saying, look for an airport (nope, we don't have one), or a flat, open field to land on – there's a sports field just to the left, there's another one. He said "what about that big dirt field there to the right?" It looked like one of the quarries near Duarte to me! But on closer inspection there was one that looked like a huge parking lot under construction. I made a shallow bank that would have made the field, then he said add power and make for EMT. It was cool that he pulled this on the demo flight – he was really testing my knowledge and maybe even "coolness under pressure" (I know this was low key – any "coolness" I may have WILL be tested more in the future I'm sure). One funny thing is that I don't feel any sense of fear with this stuff – stalls, simulated engine failure, steep turns, etc. all seem OK to me. My nervousness is performance pressure – I want to show the CFI that I can do all this stuff.

· The CFI basically told me where to start my turns for most maneuvers, calling out headings (I got better at rolling out on heading, still a little sloppy, but close – I only forgot to lift my wing to check for traffic once or twice). This was true especially when we entered the pattern – I tried to note my position and altitude, but I missed a lot (I was pretty jazzed by the end of the hour and started overcontrolling more again after improving in mid-flight – thinking about tuning and getting ATIS and calling the tower for landing got me flustered as I was trying to follow the I-10 back to the airport – BTW, need to keep such ground reference features a bit further to my left so I can keep the freeway in sight – those freeways are great nav aids, though!).

· When he had me start the turn to final (he was making the radio calls after I called the downwind), I couldn't believe he wasn't taking the airplane! He was guiding me on adding flaps, reducing throttle, carb heat, adjusting lineup, but I did all of that myself! (He may have tweaked the controls a time or two.) When we got over the threshold, he had me pulling the yoke back, and I actually flared to a very slight bump and landing (he added a skosh of power at the flare I believe to slow the descent a bit). This was shocking, but actually quite cool! At Hopedale, the landings seem to go too fast, but in this case I was involved in it, and it seemed OK, or at least possible!

· One slight worry on the turn to final – I hesitated (checked traffic maybe?) and started the turn a tad late, so I had to steepen it to get aligned with the runway. I remember reading that this is a spot where accidents happen, when the pilot misjudges the timing or the wind, and you are fairly close to stall speed (not to mention the ground). This can be a problem especially because of the increased stall speed you have in a bank, though it probably was not more than 30° (you should not do more than 30°of bank in the pattern).

· I held back pressure to slow us then applied brakes and turned left at the center to go to the fuel pit – tower ignored my call for this, so we switched to ground anyway and got permission. My taxiing was still not smooth, but the best effort so far, even using differential braking. One thing is for sure – with all the visual and physical information, landing the real airplane is WAY easier than landing in FS95! I never mentioned flight sims to either CFI today – it just didn't seem especially relevent.

I guess the bottom line is that it is starting to feel a bit familiar and if not easy, at least "doable." Brian/Sergio said I did well on everything except that over-control thing – I really need to work on that part. It was really a fun flight – in a way he really threw me into the deep end of the pool and covered a lot of topics for a demo flight. In my log book, he noted "Demo flight, preflight, taxi, runup, takeoff, stalls power on/off" – an excellent lesson for my 60 bucks. And today I more than tripled my logged flight time (TT from 0.6 hours to 2.1 hours). I think I can solo this fall if I can just get those weekly flights in with Jason! Note: FLY WITH THE LEFT HAND! Have to keep the right free for throttle and radios and all, so get used to it. Also, TRIM and USE A LIGHT TOUCH ON THE CONTROLS.

Time: Dual 1.0 hrs, TT 2.1 hrs (C152 at EMT)